December 12, 2013 3:24pm ESTDecember 12, 2013 3:20pm ESTDolphins' center Mike Pouncey testified in the Aaron Hernandez case Wednesday. The two played together at the University of Florida.Mike Pouncey(AP Photo)

Players missing practice for reasons other than injury or illness is becoming a familiar pattern for the Miami Dolphins.

Center Mike Pouncey did not participate in Wednesday's practice, and the Dolphins gave "non-injury" as a reason. They were not inaccurate: He was in Massachusetts, presumably in full health, testifying before a grand jury in the Aaron Hernandez murder case, according to numerous published reports.

Pouncey's absence served as a curious bookend. His team faces the New England Patriots in Miami this Sunday. His appearance in court Wednesday, meanwhile, was a result of a subpoena served to him the last time he appeared in the state of Massachusetts—after the Dolphins' October 27 loss to the Patriots in Foxboro, reportedly while he was on his way to the team bus.

Hernandez is charged with murder and is still jailed in Massachusetts; Pouncey was his teammate at Florida, and was initially inserted into the case last summer, when he and his twin brother (and ex-Florida teammate of the two as well) Maurkice were photographed wearing "Free Hernandez" caps.

Mike Pouncey, though, has not been charged in the crime. However, he's implicated in the other notable instance of a Dolphins player being away from the team for non-injury reasons.

For more than a week after Jonathan Martin left the team in October complaining of being bullied and harassed by teammates, the Dolphins' injury report said Martin had missed practice with a "non-football illness"—and listed him as "doubtful" for the first game after he'd bolted, right up until the afternoon of the game, a Thursday night matchup with Cincinnati.

Richie Incognito has been serving a team suspension since the week after that game. His closest friend in the locker room, caught on video soon after the story broke laughing at Incognito screaming a racial slur in a bar? Mike Pouncey.